"Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" So goes the signature introduction of New York Herald star journalist Henry Morton Stanley to renowned explorer Dr. David Livingstone, who had been missing for six years in the wilds of Africa. Into Africa ushers us into the meeting of these remarkable men. In 1866, when Livingstone journeyed into the heart of the African continent in search of the Nile's source, the land was rough, unknown to Europeans, and inhabited by man-eating tribes.

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey

At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt's harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.

Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival

Everywhere hailed as a masterpiece of historical adventure, this enthralling narrative recounts the experiences of 12 American sailors who were shipwrecked off the coast of Africa in 1815, captured by desert nomads, sold into slavery, and subjected to a hellish two-month journey through the bone-dry heart of the Sahara. The ordeal of these men - who found themselves tested by barbarism, murder, starvation, death, dehydration, and hostile tribes that roamed the desert on camelback - is made indelibly vivid in this gripping account of courage, brotherhood, and survival.

Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey into the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon

For fans of The Lost City of Z, Walking the Amazon, and Turn Right at Machu Picchu comes naturalist and explorer Paul Rosolie’s extraordinary adventure in the uncharted tributaries of the Western Amazon - a tale of discovery that vividly captures the awe, beauty, and isolation of this endangered land and presents an impassioned call to save it.

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette

In the late nineteenth century, people were obsessed by one of the last unmapped areas of the globe: The North Pole. No one knew what existed beyond the fortress of ice rimming the northern oceans. On July 8, 1879, the USS Jeannette set sail from San Francisco to cheering crowds in the grip of "Arctic Fever." The ship sailed into uncharted seas, but soon was trapped in pack ice. Two years into the harrowing voyage, the hull was breached. Amid the rush of water and the shrieks of breaking wooden boards, the crew abandoned the ship.

Canoeing The Congo: First Source to Sea Descent of the Congo River

Canoeing the Congo narrates the journey of Phil Harwood, who undertook an epic five-month solo attempt to canoe the Congo River in war-torn Central Africa. It was a historic 'first descent' from the true source in the highlands of Zambia. Just short of 3,000 miles long, the Congo River is the eighth longest in the world and the deepest river in the world, with a flow rate second only to the Amazon. Along the way, Phil encountered numerous waterfalls, huge rapids, man-eating crocodiles, hippos, aggressive snakes...

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon

A sensational disappearance that made headlines around the world. A quest for truth that leads to death, madness or disappearance for those who seek to solve it. The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon. After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, acclaimed New Yorker writer David Grann set out to find out what happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett and his quest for the Lost City of Z.

The Training Ground: Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Davis in the Mexican War 1846-1848

Nearly all of the Civil War's greatest soldiers - Grant, Lee, Sherman, Davis, and Jackson - were forged in the heat of the Mexican War. This is their story. At this fascinating juncture of American history, a group of young men came together to fight as friends - only, years later, to fight again as enemies.

Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship

Finding and identifying a pirate ship is the hardest thing to do under the sea. But two men - John Chatterton and John Mattera - are willing to risk everything to find the Golden Fleece, the ship of the infamous pirate Joseph Bannister. While he was at large during the Golden Age of Piracy in the 17th century, Bannister's exploits would have been more notorious than Blackbeard's, more daring than Kidd's, but his story and his ship have been lost to time.

The Last Voyage of Colombus: Being the Epic Tale of the Great Captain's Fourth Expedition

New York Times best-selling author Martin Dugard writes the first account of Columbus’s little-known last voyage. Columbus’ famed 1492 expedition wasn’t his last. After tough times, he was given one more chance. But this voyage didn’t have the fortuitous accidents of 1492. Instead it brought a shipwreck and more violence and mutiny than ever before - pushing an aging explorer to his limit.

Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo

Outfitted with a pair of ratty sand shoes and a knapsack full of trade goods, Eric Hansen set off to cross the rainforest of Borneo, one of the last places on earth largely untouched by Western civilization. For seven months Hansen hunted wild pig, gathered roots, and lived among tribes whose longhouses were still decorated with the headhunting swords of their ancestors, completing one of the great adventures of our time.

The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914

The Path Between the Seas tells the story of the men and women who fought against all odds to fulfill the 400-year-old dream of constructing an aquatic passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is a story of astonishing engineering feats, tremendous medical accomplishments, political power plays, heroic successes, and tragic failures. McCullough expertly weaves the many strands of this momentous event into a captivating tale.

Escape from Sobibor

On October 14, 1943, 600 Jews imprisoned in Sobibor, a secret Nazi death camp in eastern Poland, revolted. They killed a dozen SS officers and guards, trampled the barbed wire fences, and raced across an open field filled with anti-tank mines. Against all odds, more than three hundred made it safely into the woods. Fifty of those men and women managed to survive the rest of the war. In this edition of Escape from Sobibor, fully updated in 2012, Richard Rashke tells their stories

Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa

Mungo Park’s Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa has long been regarded as a classic of African travel literature. In fulfilling his mission to find the Niger River and in documenting its potential as an inland waterway for trade, Park was significant in opening Africa to European economic interests. His modest, low-key heroism made it possible for the British public to imagine themselves as a welcomed force in Africa. As a tale of adventure and survival, it has inspired the imaginations of audiences since its first publication in 1799 and writers from Wordsworth and Melville to Conrad.

Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival

At a time when the edge of American settlement barely reached beyond the Appalachian Mountains, two visionaries, President Thomas Jefferson and millionaire John Jacob Astor, foresaw that one day the Pacific would dominate world trade as much as the Atlantic did in their day. Just two years after the Lewis and Clark expedition concluded in 1806, Jefferson and Astor turned their sights westward once again. Thus began one of history's dramatic but largely forgotten turning points in the conquest of the North American continent.

Jacob the Liar

One of the most remarkable novels of the Holocaust ever written, Jakob the Liar is a tale of everyday heroism and the extraordinary power of illusion. Set in an unnamed German-occupied ghetto, the story centers on an unlikely hero, Jakob Heym, who accidentally overhears news of vital importance: The Russians are advancing on a city 300 miles away. As Jakob's tidings rekindle hope and the promise of liberation, he feels compelled to elaborate. Forming a protective bond with a young orphan girl, Jakob becomes caught in his own web of optimistic lies.

How I Found Livingstone in Central Africa

This riveting history is a firsthand account of the long and arduous search for one of the greatest explorers of the 19th century. Journalist and adventurer Henry M. Stanley was known for his search for the legendary David Livingstone, and their eventual meeting led to the popular quotation "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" A real-life adventure story, How I Found Livingstone in Central Africa tells of the incredible hardships - disease, hostile natives, tribal warfare, impenetrable jungles, and other obstacles - faced by a daring explorer. This must-have account also includes a wealth of information on various African peoples.

Quail Crossings

Tragedy has struck the small town of Knollwood, Texas and Dovie Grant finds herself dealing with the loss of her husband and daughter. Despite her grief, she still must fight to bring her remaining family through the already trying times of The Great Depression. Her father needs help on their struggling farm, Quail Crossings. She isn't thrilled that he's hired a young 18 year old boy who's caring for his three younger siblings.

Through the Brazilian Wilderness

A former American president nearly dies during an ill-planned exploration through the Brazilian Wilderness and down the River of Doubt. Theodore Roosevelt was a naturalist, explorer, author, hunter, governor, soldier and 26th President of the United States.

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President

James A. Garfield may have been the most extraordinary man ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment. But four months after his inauguration, a deranged office seeker tracked Garfield down and shot him in the back. But the shot didn’t kill Garfield. The drama of what hap­pened subsequently is a powerful story of a nation in tur­moil.

Surgeon in Blue: Jonathan Letterman, the Civil War Doctor Who Pioneered Battlefield Care

The first full-length biography of the Civil War surgeon who, over the course of the war’s bloodiest battles - from Antietam to Gettysburg - redefined military medicine.

Jonathan Letterman was an outpost medical officer serving in Indian country in the years before the Civil War, responsible for the care of just hundreds of men. But when he was appointed the chief medical officer for the Army of the Potomac, he revolutionized combat medicine over the course of four major battles - Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg - that produced unprecedented numbers of casualties.

The Last Escaper

The product of a lifetime's reflection, The Last Escaper is Peter Tunstall's unforgettable memoir of his days in the British Royal Air Force and as one of the most celebrated British POWs of World War II.

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

In August of 1914, the British ship Endurance set sail for the South Atlantic. In October, 1915, still half a continent away from its intended base, the ship was trapped, then crushed in the ice. For five months, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men, drifting on ice packs, were castaways in one of the most savage regions of the world.

Topgun Days: Dogfighting, Cheating Death, and Hollywood Glory as One of America's Best Fighter Jocks

Dave Baranek (callsign "Bio") was one of 451 young men to receive his Wings of Gold in 1980 as a naval flight officer. Four years later, seasoned by intense training and deployments in the tense confrontations of the Cold War, he became the only one of that initial group to rise to become an instructor at the navy's elite Fighter Weapons School. As a Topgun instructor, Bio was responsible for teaching the navy's and Marine Corps' best fighter pilots how to be even better. He schooled them in the classroom and then went head-to-head with them in the skies.

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

On May 1, 1915, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were anxious. Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone, and for months, its U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic.

Publisher's Summary

"Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" So goes the signature introduction of New York Herald star journalist Henry Morton Stanley to renowned explorer Dr. David Livingstone, who had been missing for six years in the wilds of Africa. Into Africa ushers us into the meeting of these remarkable men. In 1866, when Livingstone journeyed into the heart of the African continent in search of the Nile's source, the land was rough, unknown to Europeans, and inhabited by man-eating tribes. The man sent to find him was an orphan and a drifter who had great ambition but little success to show for it. The book shows how, over the course of their nine-year relationship, Stanley ironically rose in power and prominence while Livingstone was relegated to isolation and danger in Africa.

What the Critics Say

"It is rare when a historical narrative keeps readers up late into the night....But author and adventurer Dugard...makes a suspenseful tale out of journalist Stanley's successful trek through the African interior to find and rescue a stranded Livingstone....This is a well-researched, always engrossing book." (Publishers Weekly) "Dugard imbues the narrative with a keen sense of urgency that propels this compelling account along." (Booklist) "An action-packed recounting of one of the most famous incidents in the history of exploration. Fine entertainment for adventure buffs, solidly researched and fluently told." (Kirkus) "Crisp vivid language...transports the armchair adventurer from the jungle muck to the mountain peak." (Esquire)

I suppose that it is difficult or impossible to tell the story of Stanley and Livingston and the search for the source of the Nile without making a fascinating tale, and this long listen is no exception; it lives up to the promise of earlier works on the subject such as the Blue and White Nile books by, I think, Alan Moorhead. Stanley and Livingston are both fascinating characters; I didn't realize that Stanley had fought on both sides in the American Civil War, for example. I am normally quite hesitant to give any reading five stars, but it seems cruel to give short shrift to this well read and written tale.

This was the most fascinating telling of a piece of history that I have ever encounterd! Stanley and Livingston are NOT the persons you heard about in history. They were at once bigger and better as well as contrived and manipultive as any person could ever be! Yet there story, told here is more gripping and moving than any tale I've read with the possible exception of the book, "Shadow Divers" What these men were able to endure pales beyond my wildest imagination. Few persons today could endure or even be willing to endure what these men endured. This is a must read for nearly every man, women and child on the planet!

I have always had only a vague understanding of the famous Stanley and Livingstone encounter in Africa and of the even more famous "Dr. Livingstone, I presume" quotation. No longer. This book does a superb job of recounting the full tale, including the personalities and backgrounds of Stanley and Livingstone, the motivation of the American newspaper publisher who commissioned Stanley's search, and the reasons why Livingstone's fate had become a matter of intense public interest. All of this is explained as part of a neatly-constructed and engaging narrative. One point is abundantly clear from the book: Stanley would not have found Livingstone without a lot of luck and without the determination of both men to stay the course on their respective missions.

John Lee is still the best narrator, even with his slightly silly Scottish and Southern (American) accents in this one. I guess I'm an idiot because I had never heard this full story before, but it's wonderful. The book presents a great amount of info into the lives of not only the two men and their traveling companions, but just about everyone who was tangentially related to the story. Four stars only because it drags a little in the second half (the first half would get 6 or 7 stars if possible).

This book absolutely captivated me. I couldn't "put it down." Stick with it at least through chapter 6 - I couldn't tell where the author was going. Once I was in step with author, I was HOOKED. Great narration with nice voices for characters. I don't know when another book will measure up to this one for me! Now I want to know more about Africa and Henry Morton Stanley and David Livingston!

What an amazing story and incredibly well written! I'm normally a fiction guy but this story was truly better than fiction. From our comfortable lifestyles with modern conveniences it is so difficult to imagine going into the environment this adventurers ventured into.
Into Africa is incredibly well researched and holds the listeners interest all through the book. Livingstone and the characters in his story are fascinating people; some good, so not so good, but all very well researched so we learn to understand what motivates them and how they see the world. Like most people, I did not know much about Africa's history nor about the specifics of how slavery destroyed the continent so it was fascinating to learn and see Africa in such detail.
This is the first book of several dozen audio books I've listened to here that I've given 5 stars to.

This was my first audio book and I found it great. The history is fascinating and the speaker is good. The book provides compelling details of the live of great explorers - Stanley and Livingstone - as well as many other adventurers such as Richard Burton, Speke, etc... The book also provide later information about the source of the Nile. I recommend it. Ricardo-Brasilia

Who hasn't wondered what the whole Stanley & Livingston saga was all about and what was behind those famous words 'Dr. Livingstone, I presume?' This story is spellbinding and I had a hard time turning it off when I got on or off the bus while commuting to NYC. I would recommend this book to everyone and give it the highest rating.

This book caught my attention immediately. Having always wanted to learn a little about the history of Africa was the reason I bought it. I was captivated by the clever storytelling of Dugard. He brought together each character with skill and kept up the pace and suspense of what was going to happen next at just the right tempo. This is no Cliff Notes on the history of these people, but quite well researched. Especially nice was the epilogue telling of what eventually happened to each major character. I found myself anxious to get in the car to listen to more of it and even parked in a quiet place one day to finish a particular exciting chapter. This writer is equal to Stephen Ambrose or Rick Atkinson.

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